Battlefield 4 features “test range” for players to practice

One of the many Battlefield 4 requests from fans has been a “test range” where players can practice with weapons before diving into the competitive world of online multiplayer. DICE has announced that Battlefield 4 will include such a test range, where players will be able to not only practice with the various weapons, but vehicles as well. The new feature was revealed by DICE’s Lars Gustavsson during a video interview at GamesCom.

This is especially great news for those who want to learn how to operate some of the vehicles that tend to give new gamers some trouble: jets and helicopters. DICE didn’t reveal any specifics, but the “test range” is expected to be a special game mode which might feature a special map designed just for practice purposes.

Since Battlefield 4 won’t feature bots in multiplayer, a test range seems like the second best option for players to learn about the game and hone their skills.

So instead of adding bots like those from Battlefield 2 that THOUSANDS of people wanted back, they just make a glorified empty server. Guess I won’t be getting this one if DICE can’t even simply listen to the community.

You probably haven’t played a battlefield game prior to Bad Company then. Because up until they released on console they had bots, and co-op which was basically regular conquest but would fill the empty player slots with bots. It was always fun to just go in a server with a few friends and just fight a horde of bots.

Your an idiot, mods on the PC improved bots for offline mode back in 2002! Its 2013 Almost 14′ and you don’t think with your pea sized brain that they’d be better now? Go play COD and fry up some eggs with that brain off your and f off.

famoussasjohn

August 28th, 2013 at 10:22 am

Have you seen the AI that was in BF3’s campaign? Now imagine them in the MP aspect of things.

Everybody is whining like hell if his own unique an desperately preferred feature seems not to be making it in the game. Dice is definitely looking and listening at the community. How can you even tell they aren’t concerned about their community. This makes me pissed as some people really have to look at what Dice is doing… For instance see this interview with Lars Gustavsson ://www.mordorhq.com/showthread.php?10603-Lars-Gustavsson-Gamescom-Interview

I can live with everybody’s own opinion, but today’s gamers are so bored and spoiled that they not seem to be amazed by anything a developer comes up with… Seriously? Have you looked at all the info on this game? It will blow you away and let you as a player decide how you wanna play in an evolving map’!

Because virtually every BF fansite has had a “top 5″ feature list since BF3 was announced. Everything that WASN’T in Bad Company 2.
However, only command has been added in BF4 (BF3 had none of these items).
So, BF3 and now BF4 are both very pretty, but the game mechanic is technically inferior to the 2002 BF1942 and the 2005 BF2, which is why people who’ve played the franchise are asking why DICE are ignoring the requests to get back what was the base-features of the franchise.
Commander is back. Very happy about that.
Observer mode is back.
Team comms are still tied to friends list. Very bad.
No mod support.
No LAN support.
No Battle-Recorder.
No in-game server browser. Why is this bad? Because it severely limits what the game browser can do. No “preview server” feature (ala PS4) which could be done in-game but never in a browser.

So are we whining? No. These are functions DICE gave us eight years ago and were taken away, not new stuff we dreamed up.

To use your phrase – “Today’s gamers” are spoiling franchises by encouraging publishers to abandon team-play, depth and mod development in favour of shallow visuals, closed systems and DLC models.

I do agree partially an understand the concern, but my reply is simple. You can’t keep living in the past. What worked in 2003 (and yes I,did my tour of duty back in the days… ) does and will NOT work anymore in 2013. Today’ gamers need new things coming at them at the pace of the production cycle most studio’s are spitting out right now.

For me the core base of the game is a sandbox multiplayer online fps. Depending on the game mode there can be added another layer to the game of individualism or team play. In any case it is a game which wants you to play as you want within as limited (balance or technical wise) as possible.

I have been playing bf1942 and bf2 a lot an really they have NOT touched a bit a the core experience… They just opened up the series for other audiences….lets name it… Opening up to Cod play style of fps. But it’s up to,you how you choose your game in bf with all the different game types and modes. Just tweak it as you want.

For me the only significant thing that has changed since bf2 is the pace of the gameplay…. They have looked very well at the succes cod and to be the mass product they intend to be (by EA demand or not) they made this step. Gameplay wise this is to me the only thing they gave into on the series. In reality this turned out to be a good move.

Let’s discuss your list:

Mod support would be fantastic, but looks for today’s standard commercial suicide… You can only finance big budget productions and push boundaries like Dice does if you keep on earning money on a consistent basis.

LAN support…. They would be crazy to open op the netcode to anybody. They want to keep control of servers and most settings. Which triple a title has mod support nowadays? Yet again I regret it partially, but having to download shit each time I enter custom server…That does not make the community happy either.

Spec mode is in it and glad it is!

Ciommander mode is back andd great! Unfortunately this feature was misused as hell in bf2 . A lot of controversy about who can become the commander and how they often did not contributed to,team play… I think they will balance it out a lot more this time… Eg: assets will become available after objectives are completed buy the squads…

Battle recorder…. I have to be honest…. This feature was not used try me so I am neither neutral to it being in or out the game. Off course all those epic movies deserve a ingame recording tool…

No ingame browser… I don’t understand the commotion about this…. It took a lot of time back in the days to start up the game and enter the basic menu… You could speed this up by messing with the vids, but still… In those days people used third party server browsers la lot like al”All Seeing Eye” to speed things up… I really like battle log and the I te gyration of the stats and other social stuff.

To conclude…. Bf is a game for everyone an tries to serve anybody! However… The consequence of this complex diversity is a divided community with al lot of dissenting opinions what is core bf or not and which direction the game should evolve in. In my opinion Dice is still one of those Dinosaur developers trying to please everyone… Still compromises need to be made and that can lead to disappointments for some people.

Also … Bf Bad Company is a spin off series… It is just not representable for the whole bf franchise….

You are right when you say the are closing oppurtunities for current gamers… However the buying behavior of the new generation gamers proofs the new business models. ( which back in the days we saw some glimpses of …) pay off… You go either on their way or should turn to other games wi different business models

How about the Test Range also having the ability to invite friends from your battlelog list to team up and practice together a sudo LAN so to speak… It’d be pointless for piracy as there wouldn’t be any opposite team to beat, but would be great for clan/team play coordination

Could you not listen ?!!
Players want to be able to play the complete multiplayer maps with bots !!
Some of us don’t like playing against real people !!!
What part of that don’t you understand , DICE ?

What about those who manage to get a pirate copy (don’t know how, don even ask me. There might be a slight chance of someone doing it in some way), and then they can play it against smart (I think) bots. Well… it’s not the best experience, but even though… this might be a reason (maybe).